The present disclosure relates generally to travel pillows. In particular, travel pillows that include a variety of inserts for adjusting the thickness of the travel pillows in various locations are described.
Modern day travelers may find themselves desiring to get rest while on a long flight or train ride, especially in the case of overnight flights such as redeyes, or international flights. However, airline seating is often designed with cost economy first, and passenger comfort second. Seats with limited recline make getting sleep difficult, and the small pillows provided by airlines often prove unsatisfactory as they fail to provide necessary support or are prone to slip out of position, leaving a passenger unable to get decent sleep. Consequently, horseshoe shaped travel pillows have become a popular item for travelers, as they stay in position around a user's neck and allow a user to lean their head to one side in a relatively stable position.
Known travel pillows are not entirely satisfactory for the range of applications in which they are employed. For example, existing travel pillows are typically constructed using a roughly horseshoe-shaped outer cover which is filled with a fill material such as small Styrofoam balls, seeds or husks such as buckeyes, feathers or down, cotton or polyester batting, or other such compliant material. Some variants instead use an inflatable bladder approximately in the shape of a horseshoe, which may or may not be provided with an exterior cover. Such travel pillows are typically filled to a roughly consistent height and in some cases may be tapered on either side of the horseshoe. For many users, the travel pillow offers inadequate side support for a user wishing to lay their head to one side or another. Furthermore, some airlines have added head rests to airline seats in an attempt to improve comfort to some extent. These head rests are designed to function while the passenger is awake, and do not provide sufficient support to allow for good sleep. Moreover, they may interfere with proper usage of conventional travel pillows, decreasing comfort by creating pressure on the back of the neck by pressing into the travel pillow at its thickest point and by extension pushing the user's head forward uncomfortably.
Thus, there exists a need for travel pillows that improve upon and advance the design of known travel pillows. Examples of new and useful travel pillows relevant to the needs existing in the field are discussed below.